François
Duvalier, also known as Papa Doc, was the president of Haiti when this movie
came out. His was an extremely oppressive totalitarian regime. The Comedians had to be filmed in The
Republic of Benin, then known as Dahomey, because filming it on Haiti would
have been impossible. The Comedians
is a political drama meant to illuminate the ever-increasing desperate
conditions imposed upon the Haitian people. It was also meant to poke at the
inadequacies of embassy relationships with a dictatorship. And it also has a
rocky love story woven into its tapestry. The movie was filled out with an all-star
cast, including the legendary Lillian Gish. Amongst the cast were several
African-American actors whose careers would only get larger. The title The Comedians comes from the concept
that everybody is on a world stage where lines are being crossed not so much
for the humor of those involved but for the gods. The theme of everybody’s life
as a dark and ridiculous joke is a harsh sentiment that makes for a great
novel, but it might have made it a challenge for a wider film audience. Critics
might have found mild grievances with the story, but nearly everyone agrees the
performances were superb. A short documentary titled The Comedians in Africa, chronicles the difficulties the cast and
crew faced shooting a politically charged film in an alternative location.
Watching both the movie and the documentary on DVD made up for my original
experience, years before, of watching a heavily edited television version.
